More Than 90 New Courses From the World's Top Educational Institutions Available for Free

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA--(Marketwire - Feb 21, 2013) - Coursera, a leading massive open online course (MOOC) platform, today announced agreements with 29 universities from around the world to help bring their courses online and available to anyone, for free. Joining the 33 other institutions currently offering courses on Coursera are the following:

California Institute of the Arts (CalArts)

Case Western Reserve University

Curtis Institute of Music

École Polytechnique, France

IE Business School

Leiden University, Netherlands

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

National Taiwan University

National University of Singapore

Northwestern University

Penn State University

Rutgers University

Sapienza Università di Roma

Technical University of Denmark

Technische Universität München (TUM)

Tecnológico de Monterrey

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

The University of Tokyo

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

University of California, San Diego

University of California, Santa Cruz

University of Colorado Boulder

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

University of Geneva, Switzerland

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

University of Rochester

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Among the new partners are 16 international institutions, which broaden Coursera's course offerings not only by subject, but also across diverse perspectives and in multiple languages, with new courses available in native language Chinese, Spanish, French, and Italian. Additionally, Coursera will now host more courses from universities at the top of their respective fields, representing some of the leading schools of Business, Medicine, Engineering, and the Arts. All this adds up to a deeper and more broad course catalog that students from a wide array of backgrounds can tap into to pursue their academic, career, and personal goals.

"We have been humbled by how quickly Coursera has grown in less than a year, and we're working hard to continue to build our network of university partners to offer a high quality learning experience to anyone who wants it," said Coursera Co-Founder Daphne Koller. "One of our top priorities is to reach the people who need education the most, including those who would not otherwise have access to the type of courses offered by the institutions that we have the honor of working with."

"With the addition of so many new courses across a wide range of disciplines, languages, and academic approaches, we are now able to meet the needs of a more diverse student body, and give students more options. We are equally excited about bringing higher education to places where access is limited, and giving established universities opportunities to raise their impact both on and off campus," added Coursera Co-Founder Andrew Ng.

To join millions of other life long learners, register for your next course at Coursera.org.

About CourseraCoursera is on a mission to change the world by educating millions of people by offering classes from top universities and professors online for free. Coursera's comprehensive education platform combines mastery-based learning principles with video lectures, interactive content and a global community of peers, offering students from around the world a unique online learning experience. Coursera has partnered with top-tier universities to provide courses across a broad range of disciplines, including medicine, literature, history and computer science, among others. Coursera is backed by leading venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and New Enterprise Associates. For more information, visit Coursera.org.